A Rejoinder on Contextualizing the Hadiths Quoted by Shaykh Nuh in Iman, Kufr and Takfir

I was recently approached by some students of Islamic law to offer a short rejoinder to the Hadiths Shaykh Nuh Ha Mim Keller quoted in his “Iman, Kufr and Takfir” illustrating some Companions offended the Noble Prophet of Islam (Allah give him peace and blessings) but were not charged with infidelity (kufr). Shaykh Nuh’s objective was to prove that offending the Noble Prophet (Allah give him peace and blessings) did not incur any consequence had the offender made no intention of giving offence. It is with this premise he argued that the hundred year old fatwa of Imam Ahmad Rida Khan, that was endorsed by the prominent religious authorities of Makkah and Madinah (in 1323H) against certain Deobandi scholars for their irresponsible blasphemous writings, was lacking legitimacy according to the Islamic criteria of takfir since the Deobandi writers claimed to have had no intention of offending the Noble Prophet (Allah give him peace and blessings)….